Andrew Raftery “Autobiography of a Garden on Twelve Engraved Plates”
RYAN LEE
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RYAN LEE presents Andrew Raftery: Autobiography of a Garden on Twelve Engraved Plates, featuring an eight year project of ceramics, paintings, and installation based on the annual garden that the artist designs, plants, and tends in Providence, Rhode Island. On view will be an installation of twelve engraved ceramic plates designed by the artist that feature annual plants during each month of the year, as well as twelve grisaille tondo paintings. The plates are mounted on hand printed letterpress wallpaper, also designed by the artist, with patterns inspired by mustard greens. A fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by Cary Leibowitz accompanies the exhibition.
The title, which is partly in tribute to Gertrude Stein’s The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, addresses the notion that this project details the full life of the garden, including its inception, development, decline, and dormancy. The twelve-month narrative, satirical in nature inherent in Raftery’s practice, plays to the absurdity of everyday life and the action of an “unrepentant aesthete” tending an ornamental flower garden. The garden is carefully conceived with annual plants, so each year the garden has different compositions and textures that evolve throughout the season. In thinking about his garden as art, Raftery translates the performance of gardening as a pictorial narrative through engraving on ceramics.
Media
Schedule
from September 10, 2016 to November 05, 2016
Opening Reception on 2016-09-10 from 16:00 to 18:00